Obama admin finalizes gun control rules on the way out the door

Last week, the Obama administration put the finishing touches on a new policy that would deprive recipients of disability insurance and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) of their Second Amendment rights. The administration will now characterize those citizens as "mental defectives," thereby having their ability to own a firearm subject to the federal Gun Control Act.

Supplemental Security Income helps blind, disabled, and elderly people with little to no income. Previously, it was understood that "mentally defective" referred to one's mental health. Citizens who have been institutionalized against their will are restricted from owning a firearm. The new definition of "mentally defective" has nothing to do with being mentally ill.

For some time now I've been pointing out the effort by the Obama Administration to classify as many categories of people as "mentally defective" as they could stretch the definition to include, and thus bar those people from purchasing, and possibly from possessing firearms. Under an extreme interpretation they might even be subject to confiscation.

In truth this is little more than the last spiteful act of a man whose agenda was rejected by Congress and who has lost the position of power he once held. What Obama can put in place by fiat can be removed the same way. Yet we must be vigorous in ensuring that all these last-minute changes are removed, root and branch, lest they return to trouble us in the future.

ISIS plot foiled?

This one seems to fall into the "better safe than sorry" category, someone the FBI picked up because he was on their list and they wanted to preempt a possible Christmas-season attack after the last few attacks in Europe.

PA electors get police protection

One elector, Ash Khare, said he and each of the 19 others have been assigned a plainclothes state police trooper for protection.

Im a big boy, said Khare, an India-born engineer and a longtime Republican from Warren County, who estimates he receives 3,000 to 5,000 emails, letters, and phone calls a day from as far away as France, Germany, and Australia. But this is stupid. Nobody is standing up and telling these people, Enough, knock it off. 

Its going to be a long four years  at least  of battling Democrats uncivil behavior.

It doesn't have to be a long four years of this. All that has to be done is to stop tolerating it. That is, investigate each credible threat of violence received by the electors, identify the person who sent it, charge them with making terroristic threats, and start building a case for incitement of violence against the people who posted contact information and encouraged the threats. As soon as these "activists" realize their violence will not be tolerated, it will stop. Jail time has a way of encouraging people to reconnect with reality.

Then go after the people funding the electoral college full court press under RICO.

California does more gun control by emergency regulation

Early this morning, the California Department of Justice provided notice of proposed regulations relating to magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Included are changes to the requirements for obtaining and maintaining a large-capacity magazine permit, new regulations addressing so called large-capacity magazine conversion kits, new regulations on how individuals must permanently alter a magazine to accept no more than 10 rounds, and new regulations regarding the transfer and possession of multi-tube shotgun designs.

Because it's easier to make ordinary honest people jump through hoops at serious legal risk if they miss one than it is to catch criminals.

12-year-old Muslim immigrant attempts to set off nail bomb in Germany

Federal German prosecutors are investigating a 12-year-old boy who allegedly attempted to set off a nail bomb at a Christmas market in the southern city of Ludwigshafen, officials said Friday.

The German-born son of Iraqi parents is alleged to have tried to set off the device at the Christmas market on Nov. 26, and again outside city hall on Dec. 5, Focus magazine reported citing security sources.

Appeals court rules that phone unlock code can be compelled

Even with a warrant, they couldn't access the phone without the combination. A trial judge denied the state's motion to force the man to give up the code, considering it equal to compelling him to testify against himself, which would violate the Fifth Amendment. But the Florida Court of Appeals' Second District reversed that decision today, deciding that the passcode is not related to criminal photos or videos that may or may not exist on his iPhone.

This is an obvious violation of the 5th Amendment, which (in theory anyway) blocks being compelled to testify against yourself. The judge draws the analogy to police compelling someone to produce the key to a safe. The problem is that the key to a safe is a physical item, which can be obtained by search warrant. I've never heard of a physical search that compelled the subject to actually assist the police in locating evidence against them. Any such "assistance" is usually obtained by demanding the keys to locks on threat of smashing the whole place if they are not provided. (Often, the whole place is smashed anyway).

And what will they do to you if you claim you can't remember the code? Probably violate the 8th Amendment. That's the one barring "cruel and unusual punishment", if you're wondering.

Fake News

More irregularities in Detroit vote count

Detroit elections officials waited several days to deliver nearly 100 poll books to Wayne County officials charged with certifying the presidential election, newly released documents show.

County clerk officials on Thursday released a memo to State Elections Director Chris Thomas that said 95 poll books from the 662 precincts werent available at the start of the canvass, which began the day after the Nov. 8 election. Five of those poll books, which contain the names of voters and ensure the integrity of elections, were never delivered to county canvassers and presumably remain missing.

Those missing poll books are probably missing while the people who ran up the fake vote totals frantically try to cover it up. The unsealed envelopes are the ones that have already been covered up. And the missing ballots with more votes in the poll book than ballots in the boxes? Could be they just removed the Trump ballots.

Suffice it to say, the problems are pretty obvious when you actually have a recount effort. And the best part is, Trump got the Green party and the Democrats to pay for the recount that's giving him votes and exposing Democrat vote fraud!

FBI told to continue Clinton Foundation probe

Officials at FBI headquarters instructed its New York field office to continue its corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation following the election of Republican candidate Donald Trump, according to a former senior law enforcement official.

The instructions ordered agents to go forward with their ongoing inquiry into the Clinton Foundation which is focusing on issues of corruption and money laundering, according to the source.

There are some interesting questions raised by this article that are neither asked nor answered within the text. The most prominent is: why did the FBI need to instruct their field offices to continue the investigation? That suggests very strongly that someone at some point told them to stop the investigation

This is how you turn a contentious election into a shooting civil war

To preserve the foundations of the American political system and strengthen the president-elects legitimacy, the electoral college should delay voting until the dual White House and Senate reports on Russian involvement in the election are issued.

And there are people willing to do this on the basis of anonymous "sources" from within the intelligence agencies that have been run by the losing party for the last 8 years. And there are major media outlets giving airtime and attention to this bullshit.

About that vote fraud that doesn't exist...

Voting machines in more than one-third of all Detroit precincts registered more votes than they should have during last months presidential election, according to Wayne County records prepared at the request of The Detroit News.

Detailed reports from the office of Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett show optical scanners at 248 of the citys 662 precincts, or 37 percent, tabulated more ballots than the number of voters tallied by workers in the poll books. Voting irregularities in Detroit have spurred plans for an audit by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnsons office, Elections Director Chris Thomas said Monday.

Nearly 40% of Detroit precincts returned results that were not only clearly fraudulent, they were impossible in the absence of vote fraud. That only happens when there is a systemic problem. And Detroit is far from the only city to have this problem.

Secret Baltimore aerial surveillance program watches everyone

The Baltimore surveillance program broke new ground by bringing wide-area persistent surveillancea technology that the military has been developing for a decadeto municipal law enforcement. The police department kept the program secret from the public, as well as from the citys mayor and other local officials, until it was detailed in August by Bloomberg Businessweek. Privacy advocates, defense attorneys, and some local legislators called for the program to be suspended immediately, until the technology could be evaluated in public hearings.

Baltimore police are clearly taking the position that they don't need legislative permission here. Which means they have effectively become a lawless agency and need to be reined in pronto.

What's the point of a laser firing pin?

SaysUncle doesn't see one. Personally, I think it's something that would enable "smart" gun designs. Replace traditional mechanical firing pins with lasers, and you've eliminated the need to mechanically lock the action to disable the firearm. You just don't power the laser. This also addresses concerns about battery power ("Your laser already runs on a battery anyway, why are you worried?") and provides at least a talking point for reliability concerns as well.

Virginia appeals court blocks photo ID requirement for carry

The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that Circuit Courts cannot require a photo ID with a concealed handgun permit application.

An attorney in the case announced that his client won in his challenge on whether the Norfolk Circut Court could require a photo ID as a part of the Concealed handgun Permit (CHP) Application.

It's worth noting that this is a somewhat deceptive summary. The ruling is that the lower court itself cannot require a photo ID since that is not a requirement under state law. If state law did require it, there wouldn't be a problem. This is more a case of slapping down a judge who overstepped his authority than a fundamental 2nd Amendment decision.

The document and the speech together sure seem like an acknowledgment that Obama, partially because of his own administrations actions, is handing unprecedented presidential powers to someone he clearly thinks is unequipped to handle them responsibly. [emphasis added]

Well, he should have thought about that before he set the precedent. The illiteracy of the reportial profession these days is terrifying.